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Finding Meaning in Moving Furniture

By Dr. Beth Grant

A few weeks ago, I found myself standing in the middle of the floor of our home, catching my breath after moving furniture from the lower level of our home to the upper level. Our youngest daughter and son-in-law had just moved into their first home after a time of transition in which they made "home" the lower level of our home. Now, our older daughter Rebecca was returning home for several weeks after spending most of the last 2 years working with Project Rescue in India. So I found myself clearing out the dust and trying to find new use for the lower level while carrying things upstairs to make the guest room welcome and ready for Rebecca's homecoming.

It was in the middle of this shifting that I found myself asking God audibly, "Lord, maybe now things will settle down and I can keep them in one place for a while?"

You must understand that in the last 5 years our home has been in constant makeover, not in terms of décor, but in who would be living there and where. Three generations have been in transition, and the woman who loves order, structure, and peace has found herself scrambling — sometimes in a moment's notice — to rearrange our home and the furniture available to accommodate the latest reality in the lives of those we love.

• Five years ago, we moved my parents into our home so that we could help my mom care for my dad who had advancing Alzheimer's. (The upstairs guest room became their bedroom.)
• Rebecca returned home to live after college in order to do graduate studies. She helped us set up the lower level in which our office had been for 6 years as a small apartment. Our daughter Jennifer was in college, and her bedroom was empty.
• With my father's ministrokes and decreasing mobility, we suddenly needed to shift my parents to the main floor, creating a bedroom.
• A year later, my father had to be shifted to full care in a retirement home. Mom returned to the upstairs bedroom. The small room became my office. I miss my dad.
• Jennifer decided to return home to save money in college, staying in her old bedroom. Rebecca left for India.
• Jennifer got married to Jon and moved out to begin their life together.
• Jennifer and Jon moved back home into our lower level during a time of transition in his career as they prayed about the future. (Oh, yes, did I mention their two dogs?)
• Rebecca returned home for itineration, found the "apartment" full, and moved into Jennifer's old bedroom. Arguments ensued over whose stuff was whose.
• Meanwhile, my husband David keeps coming and going and wondering why I keep moving the furniture!
• Last month, Jennifer and Jon celebrated moving into their first home (along with the dogs — yes!), and Rebecca soon returns to India. I'll miss them all!
• My mom, God bless her, is a trooper and seems anxious to help by being flexible too. But I can't ignore the fact that with all my travel, there's no doubt who owns the kitchen.

I wonder, as I try to reorder our home one more time, can we leave things in place for a while? God has been teaching me several lessons, sometimes uncomfortable ones, over these several years of moving furniture from room to room, floor to floor.

1. Hold seasons lightly. They are not forever. Enjoy them while we can without holding on.
   
   "This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it" (Psalm 118:24). *
2. Our home is not our own to possess. It's His to be used to bless. (As a missionary family moving 6 times in our 32 years of marriage, this is not a new lesson, but a needed reminder that even when remaining in the same place, it is true.)
   
   "Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds and to be generous and willing to share" (1 Timothy 6:18).
3. Hold things lightly. People's needs and our ministering to them are more important than things. It's amazing how quickly things can be moved around to accommodate and change function and still make it home.
   
   "Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven …. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also" (Matthew 6:19-21).
4. People are frequently most open to God and His work in their lives during transition. If we are listening and sensitive to God and others during those trying times, God can use us at pivotal cross roads moments to speak into their lives, as He is speaking into ours.
5. Transition is a context for ministry — not a time out. In my innate discomfort with unsettledness, I can miss the truth that those days are also ordered of the Lord as much as the more comfortable, settled, structured ones I prefer. All our days are submitted to the mandate of His call.
   
   "All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. How precious to me are your thoughts, O God!" (Psalm 139:16,17.)

And as to the original question I asked God several weeks ago, "Lord, maybe now things will settle down?" I think He's been showing me that I will always need to be adapting to transitions and trusting Him with them until we're home with Him. But I'll enjoy the lull and how lovely the furniture is looking where it is for now. I'm sure I'll be moving it again soon enough.

"She is clothed with strength and dignity; she can laugh at the days to come" (Proverbs 31:25).

* All Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible New International Version ®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved.

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